Homestead mailing list

[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Gloria Morris wrote:
> Bev, If you can manage to do it, dividing pasture for rotational 
> grazing will work wonders. Long term, I want to do that with my
> place, but that would be on my resolution list for 2008 - I've got
> enough on my plate for 2007, I think!

I did have my pasture divided with electric (3 wires) when we had the
sheep.  I used the dog to move the sheep from paddock to paddock.  Right
now, I am helping out a friend to my own detriment.  I have 3 horses and
a donkey on 7 acres.  Yeah.  It's stressed.  The boys grazed the pasture
from Nov 2005 to August 2006 and now they are back because my friend and
neighbor hasn't gotten her own pasture established yet and the horses
make short work of it.  So we move them back and forth between her house
and mine...have been doing that for almost 3 months now.  For the first
session, they were paying me $150/month to rent the pasture, but now we
are bartering.  Her husband, Todd, has a big John Deere tractor and has
been helping me out doing various jobs.  He also has fertilized and
reseeded the pasture twice in addition to mowing and bushhogging.  Since
we have astronomy parties here, the pasture has to be mowed  monthly in
the summer during the week prior to the party.  That also helps remove
the piles of horse poop.  Usually, though, we leave the horses in the
front 7 acres and we observe from the back 2 acres.  Todd mows the back
pasture.  We've never had animals back there and he can actually hay
that.  After the horses left in August, with only a month of growth, he
did cut the front pasture for hay and baled it.  I got 5.5 big round
bales off about 5 acres of the 7 acre pasture, not too bad considering
how the pasture is overloaded at present.


> Thanks for the words of warning. I'm thinking only of taking out the 
> dead and dying wood. There is a wide path through the woods behind my
>  house where a tornado came through previously. It took out some
> trees and severely damaged others which have subsequently died or are
> close to death. I'd like to harvest the firewood from those but leave
> the smaller bits to rot and fertilize the next generation of trees
> that are coming on.

We have the same issues with tornado damage.  Usually they take the
pines, which isn't a great firewood.  Up in my woods, up on the ridge,
the forest has taken a beating over the past 15 years or so...Hurricane
Opal, 3 ice storms, and two tornado paths have really thinned and
devastated the land near the top of the ridge.  I've let Nature take its
course for the most part, but recent brushes with forest fires have made
me question this decision.

> > For me, the temptation to plant more fruit trees is almost
> > unbearable. I have to ask myself, how many varieties do I need?
>
> Ah, Bev! I hear that! This time of year, as the nursery and gardening
>  catologs roll in, it is very hard not to dream too big. I have to 
> fight that temptation each year.


I'm trying to readapt my thinking.  I have an obsession for planting
trees.  In the past, I have planted for edibles.  Now, I am shifting my
thinking to plant trees for income and Ron's future woodworking
business.  Apples are out, Nuts are in...Peaches are out...Christmas
trees are in.. :)

Bev
--
Bevanron of EarthNSky Farm   Sleep well tonight, for somewhere in the
ocean's depths, MY son is protecting YOUR freedom.